by Bekka Black
I never thought I could either.
Then the charred ring spread out around the stake. That black nothingness radiated around it until you were gone. I was staring at the spot where you were. Abe was crying, and I was crying.
I’m crying again while I type this. I’ll be back as soon as I can and tell you all the things you didn’t see.
Love,
Mina
From: Mina Murray
To: Lucy Westenra
Subject: I’m sorry: Part III
Sent: June 27 10:13 PM
* * *
I’ll finish it all in this email. I promise.
I heard the Count snap his fingers. He said, “Enough, Mina. Come!”
I turned and stepped right through the flames to go to him. I couldn’t stop myself; I had no power to do anything else. His blood in my body did what it was told. I didn’t even think of struggling.
Abe ran after me and yelled my name. I could barely hear him. It was like I was underwater. The Count said that I was his.
Foolhardy Abe jumped between us. He pulled a stake out of his back pocket and he held it up to me. For a second I thought he was going to try to stake me like we did with you. But you know what? I wasn’t even worried. I knew that he couldn’t really hurt me, not by himself with the Count’s blood in me and him right there.
Turns out Abe couldn’t try. He lowered the stake. Tears ran down his face, and he just said, “I cannot hurt you.”
The Count laughed, “How I adore a human in love. Wonderfully predictable.”
I felt bad for Abe because he didn’t understand anything.
When I reached down to take his hand I found the stake instead, so I put it in my pocket. The Count grabbed him and threw him inside the container. Abe landed hard. A gross thud of bones and flesh…I didn’t know if he was dead or alive.
That snapped me out of it. I was scared then. The Count might do anything to me, too. My neck started bleeding again. He led me into the terrible container, and I was shaking. I’ve never been so afraid in my life.
The Count knew how scared I was. He took me in his arms and he kissed me, and I was gone, gone, gone. I’d never felt anything like it. Everything vanished and it was just the Count and me and his lips and this feeling of warmth and contentment and waves and waves of pleasure washing over me and I wanted it to last forever…
Until I heard Abe’s heartbeat. It was fading. I pulled away from the Count and I looked at Abe on the floor.
“He’s dying, isn’t he?” I asked.
“Humans are dying from the moment of their birth,” he said.
Abe groaned. I couldn’t take my eyes off him until the Count took my chin and jerked my head back to him. He said, “But not you. Not anymore.”
I never have to die, I thought.
He leaned down and licked the blood off my neck, and I forgot Abe and everything else. It was just the Count and me again, alone in the world.
When he put my mouth against his throat, I bit him without even having to think about it. His blood gushed into my mouth, and it was warm, and it didn’t taste like I imagined at all. It was the most wonderful taste in the world, like hot peppers and chocolate and bubbly champagne and life. I could not get enough of it.
I drank and I drank until the Count pulled me off, and I was so dizzy I collapsed on the floor.
I crawled over to Abe. I could hear his heartbeat again. I could feel how warm he was, even though he was far away.
When I touched him his heart sped up. I tasted his fear, and then I tasted his blood. It was different from the Count’s, not as strong but still heavenly. Abe groaned, but he didn’t try to stop me. I finished. I put Abe on my neck. He drank and I knew that he would be one of us. He wouldn’t die. But the Count just laughed and said I wasn’t strong enough to make a vampire and that Abe was too weak to make the transformation anyway.
I stared at Abe. His heart sounded stronger to me. Was the Count lying?
I felt hot and weak. The Count told me, “It is time for you to rest, Little One. Dawn has come and gone already, and I have much to do.”
He pulled me to my feet and led me over to the coffin. He gave me a long kiss. It was wonderful like before. I had his blood in me now. The heat of it burned in me. I felt his heartbeat throbbing through my whole body. It was slow but much more powerful than mine or Abe’s. My heart and the whole world slowed down to match the Count and still it was all one kiss and I melted into it and just let go…
But this time I knew it couldn’t be good night. It had to be good-bye. Otherwise I was trapped. I would have to kill. Abe would wind up dead or he would be trapped, too. How could I trade the lives of all the people I would have to kill for my own immortality? This was probably the last moment I would ever be strong enough to know that.
I pulled the stake out of my pocket and buried it in the Count’s chest. It slid in more easily than I expected now that I was so strong.
The Count staggered back and stared at me. He was surprised. I realized that was the first genuine expression I’d seen on his face. I don’t think anything had surprised him that much in hundreds of years. I asked him if had predicted that, because humans in love are not as predictable as he thinks.
And he vanished, too, just like you did, one heartbeat at a time. As each heartbeat took him away from me I felt colder and sadder. I had killed him, and you, and my own chance of living forever.
Abe struggled over to my side, but I think he was afraid to touch me. He wanted to know if we were vampires, but I reminded him of what Renfield said: “Kill the master and the fledglings are released.”
I couldn’t hear Abe’s heartbeats anymore or even my own. I knew that we were released. I was human and mortal and cold and lonely. Abe took me in his arms and that helped, but it wasn’t the same as the Count. And it won’t ever be, will it?
We heard sirens then, and we bolted.
I picked up Mr. Bubbles on the way.
I’m going to take him to your tomb, the real one next to your mother, and put him in there.
I love you, Lucy. I always thought we’d go through every adventure together forever, that I would follow you into the darkest of places and back out again. But there are places too dark for me to stay.
I am so sorry for how everything ended up. I hope, wherever you are, that you are with your mother and at peace. I miss you.
Love always,
Mina.
From: Mina Murray
To: Jonathan Harker
Subject: Good-bye
Sent: June 27 11:59 PM
* * *
Jonathan,
We’re done. The marks on my neck are healing. I bet yours are, too.
I wish you well. Be faithful to the next girl, Jonathan. It matters.
Mina
Text message from Abe Van Helsing to Mina Murray
Mina’s browser (seven years later)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After a childhood often spent without electricity or running water, Bekka Black escaped the beautiful wilderness of Talkeetna, Alaska, for indoor plumbing and 24/7 electricity in Berlin, Germany. Accustomed to the cushy lifestyle, she discovered the Internet in college and has been wasting time on it ever since (when not frittering away her time on her iPhone). Somehow, she manages to write novels, including the award-winning Hannah Vogel mystery series set, in all places, 1930s Berlin. The series has received numerous starred reviews and the first book, A Trace of Smoke, was chosen as a Writer’s Digest Notable Debut. She lives in Hawaii with her husband, son, two cats, and too many geckos to count. iDrakula is her first cell phone novel.
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